Monthly Archives: December 2004
Holiday Hiatus Reruns
For the next few weeks, the Far Outliers will be traveling to the Far East Coast (NYC and DC area) for a refresher course in family reunions and unblogged lives. I started this blog as an experiment almost exactly a … Continue reading
Filed under Indonesia, military, Papua New Guinea, U.S.
North Korea’s "Analectical Materialism"
The environment of the Soviet occupation of northern Korea, unlike that in Eastern Europe, was an East Asian agrarian society recently emerged from [Japanese] colonial rule. Certain policies, such as land reform, were immensely popular regardless of whether Russians or … Continue reading
North Korea’s Hard "Soft Landing"
NKZone‘s Andrei Lankov posts a link to an analysis he presented in New Zealand last year raising doubts “about the now so fashionable ideas of North Korea’s ‘soft landing’”–the idea that it can reform its way into less-than-catastrophic unification with … Continue reading
Vanuatu Disambiguates Its China Policy
The Head Heeb has the latest on Vanuatu ex-PM Serge Vohor’s attempt to straddle the China-Taiwan divide. To make a longer story short, Vohor landed on his backside, leaving China standing tall.
Filed under China
"Democracy has few supporters in Pakistan"
Democracy has few supporters in Pakistan. The army has been in power for nearly half the country’s existence and it is commonplace for senior officers to complain wistfully that the politicians are too incompetent and too corrupt to govern. ‘The … Continue reading
Heirs of the Moravian Brethren
Jednota bratrska [Union of Brethren] was persecuted with varying degrees of vigor from the time of Jiri z Podebrad–who wanted a unified Utraquist hegemony–onward, and Vladislav II’s Saint James’s Mandate of 1502, which closed the Brethren’s churches and banned their … Continue reading
Romanian Election Analysis
From Doug Muir Halfway down the Danube: Traian Basescu has won, and will be Romania’s next President. Final result: 51.2% for Basescu, 48.8% for Nastase. This was very unexpected, and may lead to a period of political turbulence. One early … Continue reading
Filed under Romania
Senkyoushigo: Macaronic Missionary Talk
Hey dode [partner < doryo], okinasai [wake up]! It’s time I got a start on asagohan [breakfast] so we can have some oishii [tasty] muffins before benkyokai [study meeting]. You’re dish-chan this week, so you go take the first fud … Continue reading
To: Commander Jamalpur Garrison, 10 December 1971
In late November 1971, the Indian Army decisively invaded East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in support of the Bengali resistance army, the Mukti Bahini (‘freedom fighters’). At Jamalpur, near Dhaka, the Indian brigadier, Hardit Singh Kler, surrounded a Pakistani unit led … Continue reading
The Victim as Hero
The horror of the atomic bombings, the terror of the firebombings, the oppressive regimentation at the home front under a government at total war, the loneliness of civilians and foot soldiers abandoned by their state on the open Manchurian plain … Continue reading
Filed under Vietnam
